Walking to work this morning I was reflecting on the near-miss of almost living in Kayabacho Tower when I moved to Japan 7 years ago. Never a big fan of moving, I’ve been in the same apartment in Mon-naka since I got here. And I still think Kayabacho would be a lousy place to live, […]
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Mus-mus, Marunouchi
As you may have heard, I tend to go to a new restaurant for lunch every day. Working in the greater Otemachi area allows an incredible range of choice – for example the Shin Marunouchi Building is 5 minutes walk but has 45 dining options. I haven’t exhausted them all, especially the ones up on […]
Saburoku Juhachi Hanale (三冨魯久汁八 華れ)
Hey, for starters, I didn’t make up the name. The kanji are a jokey reinterpretation, but evidently the expression is a mnemonic for “three sixes are eighteen,” and it was described to me as “Japanese math”. Really. Strikes me as one of those things like “Wow, man, it’s so mystical – if you take 2, […]
Muromachi Toriya, Nihonbashi (むろまち鳥や)
Woo hoo, this weird-looking chicken place does some great lunch specials. I almost want to go back to try their chicken ramen set. It looks like it should be yoshoku, or maybe a coffee shop. But inside is smoky as hell, with this guy manning a seemingly-unventilated grill and churning out an endless series of […]
- Otemachi
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Komeraku, Otemachi (ひとくち茶漬け 八十八楽 こめらく)
The green-ness here is quite striking, isn’t it? As are the low ceilings. These old-fashioned buildings in central Tokyo were not built with claustrophobics in mind. Or people were smaller back then. My favorite example of that style was the old JA building, which was dark and dirty and half-shuttered as well as claustrophobic. Now […]
- Otemachi
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San Mari Tearoom, Otemachi
A laaate lunch put me in mind of these places in the basement of the building across the street that stay open all hours. They’re ‘tea rooms’, or kissa, as you like, and this looked like the most likely contender – at least on the smokey atmosphere dimension. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t smoke […]
Matsukaze ramen, Akihabara (松風)
When I first came to Japan and started at my new company, the most surprising thing was this: no laptop. After almost 10 years in consulting-related jobs, not having a laptop from work was like losing an arm. A not very useful, kinda heavy arm that you had to carry around all the time. It […]
Muroichi ramen, Nihonbashi (室壱羅麺)
Today was really late. I didn’t get out of the office for lunch until after 2:30, so places over in the Muromachi area of Nihonbashi were putting out the ‘Close’ signs while I walked past (on normal days they just hurry out to say they’re closed when they see me walk past). Muroichi was open […]
- Kyoto
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Sarasa Pausa, Kyoto (サラサ麩屋町PAUSA)
We’ll return to this theme repeatedly over the next couple reviews, but the neighborhood blocked out by the Kamo River and Karasuma Street on the east and west, then Oike Street and Shijo Street on the north and south, is probably the coolest in the world. It has all the old-fashioned, mildly touristy charms of […]
Nezameya, Kyoto (祢ざめ家)
Not everyone is fascinated by Fushimi Inari, Japan’s greatest shrine to the fox god. Some people, in fact, just get sleepy walking through all those gates. For propriety, you’re supposed to walk through them off-center (humble), and bow as well, but with thousands of gates, it ain’t happening. In fact, it never happens. I can […]